Chinese wet markets

Someone on Facebook is arguing it's "racist" to criticize Chinese wet markets. My response:

1. Culture is not equivalent to race/ethnicity. For example, look at the cultures of groups like ISIS, al-Qaeda, or the Taliban. They're predominantly a religious culture (Islam). They draw from Muslims of any race/ethnicity as long as the Muslims agree with their ideological views. Yet there's no doubt these are evil cultures. And there's nothing wrong with saying they're evil cultures.

2. True, wet markets exist in China and in America. However, the difference is we have certain food safety standards to meet, and we crack down when they violate these standards. What food safety standards exist in China?

3. What's more, China has an authoritarian government that literally could and in fact has used force in the past to crack down on its own citizens. Look at how they've used draconian measures in attempts to quash the coronavirus. If China is going to use force and even violent force against their own people, China could bring force to bear in order to enforce food safety standards or even shut down wet markets if they wished.

4. Of course, I'm not suggesting China should violently quash wet markets. Rather I'm suggesting China has the will and ability to do so, but they don't seem to do anything about wet markets. And that's likely due at least in part to the fact that wet markets are a fixture in Chinese culture. So this aspect of Chinese culture is problematic to say the least. And it's not "racist" for me to say there are problematic aspects in Chinese culture any more than it's "racist" for me to say there are problematic aspects in Muslim culture.

5. There are other people-groups with wet markets. Many Africans eat "bush meat". That's how some diseases have crossed over from animals to humans. So I wouldn't limit my criticisms to Chinese wet markets alone. I could criticize Africans for eating bush meat. How would that be "racist" if I'm criticizing the practice of eating bush meat? I'm not singling anyone out by their race.